Wednesday, March 10, 2010

I enjoy carbs and rainbows

I've been using yeast on a regular basis since my first real post about it. Honestly, I've experienced a lot of flops along the way, but the whole journey has been enjoyable, rewarding, and teaching. In the beginning, I didn't really think about crumb, crust, preferments for more flavor, etc. I just tackled simple breads that usually took little time and were soft all around. Those can be really good, such as KitchenAid's 1 hour dinner rolls, but I'm just thankful that I've had the time to learn about the other options out there. All of this isn't to say that I even have an inkling of knowledge about serious bread baking, but I'm glad I'm starting to improve a bit.

There really isn't anything like using your hands to form something so wonderful. It brings families together... Love, time and care goes into making it. It can be an art. All of this may sound corny (and I said something similar in my first challah entry), but bread really is something special. I take my hat off to all bread bakers.

This bread used a no-knead dough recipe (let me know if you want the recipe). What baked up was crusty on the outside, moist and "holey" (I don't care if that's not the PC term, because I like saying holey) on the inside, and a wonderful sourdough-esque flavor. You make a relatively wet dough with flour, yeast, salt and water, let it rise for a bit on the counter, then stick the dough in the fridge for many, many hours. This allows the gluten to form, and flavor to enhance. Then you get the dough to room temp, fold and shape, rise, slash and bake at a high temp with some water splashed in the oven to create steam (for a nice crust). A lot of bread bakers point out that good flavor comes from the living yeast eating sugars and farting CO2 and alcohol! That little fact makes me smile. Who knew farts could make things so delicious?

I made rainbow cupcakes today. What more can I say about that?

So bright and groovy. Gel food coloring is the key (super concentrated gel food coloring = even better, but that's not available to me).Just separate white cake batter into 6 bowls and add respective colorings drop by drop until you get the desired shades. Then spoon the first color into lined cupcake molds. Spoon the succeeding colors in the center of the previous color. Bake for recommended time and voila!

hey hey arf arfthjose look like they came from outer space can i have one!Hi trish I miss youI went to two beaches todayI like the sound of waves washing in and outI lost my camera the second day here. and my yellow flats the third day! BOOI hope I odnt lose anything elseMarina talks about you as if youre her friend. I think shes a litte psycho. spring breaks almost oversee you soon! SAAAAAAWRA

sey- I KNOWWW! they are so friggin bright and artificial and i love them. hahahaha. you should definitely try making the bread, it couldn't be easier. i can send you the recipe i used if you'd like.

jo- oh yeah! diana told me she'd make em for steff's bday. how was the beach yo? i wish i could've gone~ next time though.. ^^

sara- HAHAHHAHA. oh myyyy. i laughed so hard when i read your messages. i miss you too! how did you lose your camera AND flats? esp since they're YELLOWWWWWW. hahahaha. i like marina :) i hope i get to meet her someday. if she's friends with you, she has to be psycho hehehehe. i can't beleeb you remembered the guy i mentioned HAHA. it's ok. i hope you meet some cuties down there! i miss youuuuuu. tell marina i say haaaaay :)